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The Kentucky Chamber Foundation, in partnership with the Kentucky State Department of Education, developed this publication to raise employer awareness of and support for the Common Core State Standards and the positive impact that the Standards will have on preparing students for success in both...

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More than a dozen states will assign A-F letter grades to schools by 2015 according to a media release describing this database published by the Education Commission of the States (ECS). The online database shows which indicators states are considering in gauging school performance and how state...

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This newly updated and final edition of Coming together to Raise Achievement provides consortia-approved summaries of the ongoing work of all the assessment consortia: comprehensive assessment (PARCC and Smarter Balanced), alternative assessment (DLM and NCSC), and English language proficiency...

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Achieve's third national poll on voter perceptions of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), conducted in November 2013, showed that a solid majority of voters support common standards, assessments, and allowing students and teachers time to adjust to these new expectations. Awareness of the CCSS...

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The Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) created Beyond the Bubble, a website that houses history assessments created by a consortium of Stanford faculty, graduate students, post-docs, and visiting scholars. The purpose of the assessments is to assess 21st Century skills using primary documents...

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This is a great resource that identifies more than 100 books, historical and contemporary, by and/or about First Peoples (the terminology used in Canada to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Americas who are neither Inuit or Métis). The books depict themes and issues that are important within...

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This article explores teacher evaluations of researcher-endorsed instructional strategies employed by 16 middle school teachers in Florida to address the developmental and educational needs of their students. The results of a six-point ratings survey to assess the effectiveness of ten instructional...

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This document provides sets of clearly articulated guidelines that address issues of concern in the documentation, representation, and utilization of traditional cultural knowledge as they relate to the roles of various participants, including Elders, authors, curriculum developers, classroom...

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This digest briefly reviews the impacts of assimilationist education for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students and describes recent examples of successful AI/AN schools that incorporate students’ Native language and traditional culture into the curriculum. Four exemplary AI/AN programs...

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The Minnesota Department of Education provides curriculum resources for educators to be used as models, or revised, for use in the classroom. These curricular resources provide primary, intermediate, middle school, and high school versions of lesson plans in American Indian-centered topic areas:...

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This chapter examines theoretical and practical research studies that support and inform the development of culturally appropriate curriculum for American Indian children in K–12 classrooms. These studies fall into the following areas: (1) historical roots, including the Meriam Report of 1928; (2)...

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In this paper, Darling-Hammond outlines the elements for a comprehensive system of teacher evaluation to support effective teaching. An integrated approach to teacher evaluation would connect a variety of goals and purposes to a professional development system that supports teachers at every stage...

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In a blog post from The Whole Child (a website by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and a partner of the College, Career, and Citizen Readiness (CCCR) coalition), school principal Steven Weber presents several reasons why states should embrace the Common Core State...

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This report, from AASA, The School Superintendents Association, surveyed over 500 superintendents from 48 states about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The majority of superintendents surveyed support the CCSS; however, many respondents urge a slow down of its implementation, in particular...

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In this policy brief, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) calls upon policymakers to help principals effectively implement new college and career ready standards. The report makes separate sets of recommendations for federal, state, and district policymakers to help...

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In this short article, which appeared in the journal Educational Leadership, Tony Wagner presents a brief summary of his research on 21st century skills and academic rigor. Wagner spoke with several hundred business, nonprofit, philanthropic, and education leaders on the skills young people needed...

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Sam Wineburg, an expert in historical thinking and a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, writes that use of historical text in the classroom will help achieve the Common Core standards. Historical text is "letters, diaries, secret communiqués, official promulgations, public...

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In this brief article published in Teacher's College Record, Ronald Gallimore and James Heibert, experts in the areas of teacher and school improvement, teacher preparation, and teacher practices, reflect on the challenges of Common Core State Standards implementation. Some challenges to...

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This policy brief from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute presents advice on challenges to Common Core transitions. A research team from Fordham interviewed key policymakers and influentials in five states (Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York) to gather information on how the...

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Article abstract: “Recent years have seen the convergence of two major policy streams in U.S. K–12 education: standards/accountability and teacher quality reforms. Work in these areas has led to the creation of multiple measures of teacher quality, including measures of their instructional...

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This Research Digest briefly summarizes a research study that examined the achievement for subgroups of English learners (ELs; e.g., long-term ELs and reclassified ELs). This study was the result of a request from the state departments of education from the West Region states to figure out better...

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The Office of Bilingual Education and Foreign Language Studies, in the New York State Education Department, released a blueprint that describes principles aimed to clarify expectations for administrators, policymakers, and practitioners to prepare English language learners (ELLs) for college and...

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The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, with support from the Council for Exceptional Children, conducted a study with administrators and state and district directors of special education on policies and practices the evaluation of special education teachers and English language...

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This article in The Atlantic discusses ways in which testing can help student learning. The article distinguishes between standardized testing (e.g., summative tests) and formative assessment. Standardized testing is “static” and “summative” because they measure students’ sum total knowledge or...

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This document, adopted by PARCC after extensive public feedback from K-12 educators, higher education faculty, parents, and community members, has been used to guide the development of items and tasks for the PARCC assessments in ELA/literacy and mathematics. It will also serve to guide the...

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This report provides guidance on how state policymakers and education leaders can develop coherent and strategic assessment systems to prepare students for college and 21st century careers. Conley and Hammond draw on research and successful assessment practices to offer a “blueprint for new systems...

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To assist states in answering questions on how the Common Core State Standards were developed and why, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) worked with David T. Conley, Co-Chair of the Validation Committee for the Common Core State Standards Initiative, to publish this document. In...

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In this article, Robert Rothman presents a general overview of implementation practices of the Common Core across the nation. Rothman discusses the idea of “standards deviation” or differences in interpretation of how standards should be implemented. He also discusses cross state and national...

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In this article, curriculum design experts and educators Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins present five big ideas about the Common Core State Standards and their translation into a curriculum. The authors highlight potential misconceptions in working with the Standards and offer recommendations for...

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Mississippi’s Whole Schools Initiative is “an arts integrated conceptual approach to education reform that redesigns the school learning environment to promote enhanced learning using the arts as the vehicle to support high quality education and instruction for all students” (p. 1). The research...

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Supporting research-based decision-making in standards and assessment

WestEd and CRESST, two national leaders in the standards and assessment field, continue their collaboration in providing high-quality research support and technical assistance to states as the Center on Standards and Assessment Implementation (CSAI).

This award is a grant under prime award #S283B050022A between the U.S. Department of Education and WestEd. The findings and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Education. This site and its contents copyright WestEd. All rights reserved.